A Short Little Bit About Arty

I always hear and read all the typical stuff about arty, from both sides. The very first World of Tanks battle I ever played was in a tier 2 US arty (the t57 at the time was the tier 2, fun fact I went troll platooning into a tier 8 battle with it once and killed an enemy Superpershing who was just saying how I wasn't gonna be able to do anything and was being an annoying troll ) on my dad's account when he was showing me "this great new game". I have played a decent number of battles in it, typically do well, and feel that arty is an important part of my WoT experience, but not an overwhelming majority.

Now, I have sat for years listening to both sides flame each other back and forth about the "sky cancer" or whatever, yet in all my years I've never really had a huge problem with it, so I don't know what people are so pissed at arty about. Sure, every now and then you'll get a game where you get one-shot, but that's VERY rare, unless you play exceptionally poorly, in which case that's your call to do a little bit of improving. Arty players are right about that, it's actually pretty hard to hit things in an arty unless their target isn't paying attention for some reason.

HOWEVER, I also understand very much the frustration with artillery itself. I have the occasional fit of rage at a one-shot, or infini-track. Speaking of which, the FV304 (I believe that's the tier 6 British arty off the top of my head) is incredibly stupid. I don't care if it deals more damage, it's just incredibly unbalanced in it's current ridiculous rate of fire state. Nerf the ROF plz.

TLDR: After thinking about things long and hard (ha), I believe the solution is simple. Arty needs to have shorter range. Not even necessarily like 500> meters away, but just something so they can't sit behind mountains on the farthest corner of the map, but somewhere where you have a hope of maybe spotting them luckily, or with a suicide scout, and they have to have a bit of skin in the game. This would especially be a good solution with the new tier 10 light tanks coming in, which brings me to the sandbox changes (which I am participating in, so I know what I'm talking about here). After reading a certain post by a very committed artillery player, I can assure everyone that arty is still just as annoying as ever. I personally like the new changes, both from an arty player standpoint and from a regular tank point. I can now actually move out from a rock, or advance in my slow TDs and heavies and think "ok, I might take a shot, but at least I have a chance of getting where I need to be" (ie, I can do this, but with that arty presence I better make sure it's worth it first, rather than "nope".). And when playing arty, let's face it, splashing enemies with a larger radius and still dealing around 300 damage per shot is really fun, which is what this game is all about. And it feels a bit more strategic than the old "ha i got one!" system.

Anyways, I just wanted to provide my thoughts on what I feel is the problem and solution to arty. I hope this doesn't devolve into arguments, as if we DON'T argue we can actually find a solution that works for everyone. But this is the internet, so I have no hopes up for that...

a simple solution to arty is to make it a battle option in the settings. Just like encounter battle and assault battle. It would be arty off or arty on. You might have to wait in que longer during low server population but nobody would one shot ya

a simple solution to arty is to make it a battle option in the settings. Just like encounter battle and assault battle. It would be arty off or arty on. You might have to wait in que longer during low server population but nobody would one shot ya

No difference being one shot by Arty than any other tank. Easiest solution if people don't want to play against Arty is just not to play. Everyone loves to one shot Arty but have a major bowel movement as soon as Arty manages to one shot or damage them.

I always hear and read all the typical stuff about arty, from both sides. The very first World of Tanks battle I ever played was in a tier 2 US arty (the t57 at the time was the tier 2, fun fact I went troll platooning into a tier 8 battle with it once and killed an enemy Superpershing who was just saying how I wasn't gonna be able to do anything and was being an annoying troll ) on my dad's account when he was showing me "this great new game". I have played a decent number of battles in it, typically do well, and feel that arty is an important part of my WoT experience, but not an overwhelming majority.

Now, I have sat for years listening to both sides flame each other back and forth about the "sky cancer" or whatever, yet in all my years I've never really had a huge problem with it, so I don't know what people are so pissed at arty about. Sure, every now and then you'll get a game where you get one-shot, but that's VERY rare, unless you play exceptionally poorly, in which case that's your call to do a little bit of improving. Arty players are right about that, it's actually pretty hard to hit things in an arty unless their target isn't paying attention for some reason.

HOWEVER, I also understand very much the frustration with artillery itself. I have the occasional fit of rage at a one-shot, or infini-track. Speaking of which, the FV304 (I believe that's the tier 6 British arty off the top of my head) is incredibly stupid. I don't care if it deals more damage, it's just incredibly unbalanced in it's current ridiculous rate of fire state. Nerf the ROF plz.

TLDR: After thinking about things long and hard (ha), I believe the solution is simple. Arty needs to have shorter range. Not even necessarily like 500> meters away, but just something so they can't sit behind mountains on the farthest corner of the map, but somewhere where you have a hope of maybe spotting them luckily, or with a suicide scout, and they have to have a bit of skin in the game. This would especially be a good solution with the new tier 10 light tanks coming in, which brings me to the sandbox changes (which I am participating in, so I know what I'm talking about here). After reading a certain post by a very committed artillery player, I can assure everyone that arty is still just as annoying as ever. I personally like the new changes, both from an arty player standpoint and from a regular tank point. I can now actually move out from a rock, or advance in my slow TDs and heavies and think "ok, I might take a shot, but at least I have a chance of getting where I need to be" (ie, I can do this, but with that arty presence I better make sure it's worth it first, rather than "nope".). And when playing arty, let's face it, splashing enemies with a larger radius and still dealing around 300 damage per shot is really fun, which is what this game is all about. And it feels a bit more strategic than the old "ha i got one!" system.

Anyways, I just wanted to provide my thoughts on what I feel is the problem and solution to arty. I hope this doesn't devolve into arguments, as if we DON'T argue we can actually find a solution that works for everyone. But this is the internet, so I have no hopes up for that...

Nothing wrong with the FV304, different guns have different fire rates.

I always hear and read all the typical stuff about arty, from both sides. The very first World of Tanks battle I ever played was in a tier 2 US arty (the t57 at the time was the tier 2, fun fact I went troll platooning into a tier 8 battle with it once and killed an enemy Superpershing who was just saying how I wasn't gonna be able to do anything and was being an annoying troll ) on my dad's account when he was showing me "this great new game". I have played a decent number of battles in it, typically do well, and feel that arty is an important part of my WoT experience, but not an overwhelming majority.

Now, I have sat for years listening to both sides flame each other back and forth about the "sky cancer" or whatever, yet in all my years I've never really had a huge problem with it, so I don't know what people are so pissed at arty about. Sure, every now and then you'll get a game where you get one-shot, but that's VERY rare, unless you play exceptionally poorly, in which case that's your call to do a little bit of improving. Arty players are right about that, it's actually pretty hard to hit things in an arty unless their target isn't paying attention for some reason.

HOWEVER, I also understand very much the frustration with artillery itself. I have the occasional fit of rage at a one-shot, or infini-track. Speaking of which, the FV304 (I believe that's the tier 6 British arty off the top of my head) is incredibly stupid. I don't care if it deals more damage, it's just incredibly unbalanced in it's current ridiculous rate of fire state. Nerf the ROF plz.

TLDR: After thinking about things long and hard (ha), I believe the solution is simple. Arty needs to have shorter range. Not even necessarily like 500> meters away, but just something so they can't sit behind mountains on the farthest corner of the map, but somewhere where you have a hope of maybe spotting them luckily, or with a suicide scout, and they have to have a bit of skin in the game. This would especially be a good solution with the new tier 10 light tanks coming in, which brings me to the sandbox changes (which I am participating in, so I know what I'm talking about here). After reading a certain post by a very committed artillery player, I can assure everyone that arty is still just as annoying as ever. I personally like the new changes, both from an arty player standpoint and from a regular tank point. I can now actually move out from a rock, or advance in my slow TDs and heavies and think "ok, I might take a shot, but at least I have a chance of getting where I need to be" (ie, I can do this, but with that arty presence I better make sure it's worth it first, rather than "nope".). And when playing arty, let's face it, splashing enemies with a larger radius and still dealing around 300 damage per shot is really fun, which is what this game is all about. And it feels a bit more strategic than the old "ha i got one!" system.

Anyways, I just wanted to provide my thoughts on what I feel is the problem and solution to arty. I hope this doesn't devolve into arguments, as if we DON'T argue we can actually find a solution that works for everyone. But this is the internet, so I have no hopes up for that...

Finally, someone that sees both sides of the coin, like me! It always seems to be "remove arty" people that seem to have never played artillery and don't understand how it is to play one, or people like n4cer67 here that refuses to acknowledge that some things may need to be tweaked about arty. I love playing arty, but I play all types of tanks and like aspects of all of them. It's fun to brawl in a heavy, just like it's amazing to zip around in a light and run circles around your enemies.

But when you get into clan battles, arty is unacceptable to play. Anyone else noticed this? No clan wants an arty in battle. Watch any league play? There's no arty! There's a problem there, in my opinion. Arty is already seen as so bad that it practically isn't allowed to play in skilled strategic play. If arty is already that bad, does it really need a nerf? That's why I can't agree with you on the sandbox changes; I think arty is already a "support" tank that can't really accomplish anything on its own, despite having received a Kolobanov's Medal in an arty. It also has a distinct disadvantage when it comes to gaining xp; other tanks can spot enemies, and then get a portion of the xp for damage caused to that enemy. Other tanks can also reliably track enemies to get a portion of the xp for damage caused. For arty, it's all up to RNGesus whether you'll track the enemy or not, and if you spot an enemy, you're most likely dead within seconds. Sure, the sandbox changes are going to make tracking an enemy more likely, but at what cost? Never being able to actually kill your target? No thanks. I already usually deal 300 damage to enemies I'm firing at, instead of anything close to the alpha damage the shell advertises. The changes that sandbox is bringing to arty just make it seem to me that it'll be justified that arty is never allowed in a clan match, and will never be seen again in league play.

redeyedjack_2015, on Mar 18 2017 - 00:01, said:

a simple solution to arty is to make it a battle option in the settings. Just like encounter battle and assault battle. It would be arty off or arty on. You might have to wait in que longer during low server population but nobody would one shot ya

I do find your suggestion interesting. I don't see it working, but it is intriguing, and it'd certainly help tone down all the arty hate. It just makes it so that all these arty-haters can drive their heavily-armored tanks around with impunity, never having to deal with a shell raining down from above and hitting the weakest part of their armor while they sit perfectly still in the open. Type 4 Japanese heavies could just dominate everyone by backing into a position where only their front is exposed and never moving. Considering no one ever wants to cap for the win, it'd work out perfectly, right?

Playing in any other tank, if you know where to shoot you can ammo rack an enemy or hit their engine and set them on fire. So, this option wouldn't prevent you from ever being one-shot. Either of those things happening can lead to a one-shot kill, and be accomplished more reliably than an arty one-shotting you (something that the arty-haters seem to not recognize), and any other tank only has to wait a couple seconds before they get another attempt at it, while arty likely has to wait in excess of 30 secs to try again. Arty can't rely on actually hitting what they're aiming at, due to the incredible inaccuracy and the delay between firing and the shell hitting. So a one-shot kill as an arty comes down to luck more than anything; is RNGesus going to let your shell actually land anywhere near where you're aiming, despite waiting for maximum accuracy? Is the enemy actually going to stay still long enough for it to matter? Skilled players know to stay close to buildings or some other obstacle that blocks arty from landing a round on them, or to keep moving unpredictably so that it's less likely that arty will hit them, just like skilled players know not to expose their engine and ammo rack to the enemy. It's really not a difficult concept, it's just hard to master.

This is a war game; you're going to die. You're going to die faster than you'd like. Just hop in to another tank in your garage and get into another battle. You can try again in that tank in 15 minutes or less, and that guy that killed you most likely won't be there.